Could Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang enter world’s 20 richest list?

Nvidia Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang could become one of the richest people in the world as the company’s stock reached new dizzying heights. Jensen Huang’s wealth jumped $9.6 billion to $69.2 billion which puts him ahead of Charles Koch and Chinese bottled-water tycoon Zhong Shanshan and leads him to the 21st place on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He was ranked 128th with a net worth of $13.5 billion as recently as early last year.

This comes as Nvidia surged 16% to a record high and added about $277 billion in market value- the biggest single-session increase in market history, The company beat Meta Platforms Inc.’s $197 billion gain earlier this month exceeding investor expectations with a revenue forecast that was more than $2 billion.

The rally also boosted the fortunes of the 30 billionaires on Bloomberg’s wealth list by a combined $42.8 billion of which CEO of Super Micro Computer Inc. Charles Liang was the biggest winner on a percentage basis with a 33% jump.

Nvidia profit results

Nvidia said its profit soared to $12.3 billion in the recently ended quarter. The Silicon Valley chip titan reported profit of $12.3 billion on record revenue of $22.1 billion in the quarter than ended late January. In the same period, the company registered record high revenue of $60.9 billion for the fiscal year.

“Accelerated computing and generative AI have hit the tipping point,” Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said, adding, “Demand is surging worldwide across companies, industries and nations.”

He said, “Our Data Center platform is powered by increasingly diverse drivers. Vertical industries – led by auto, financial services and healthcare – are now at a multibillion-dollar level.”

At the heart of this surge are Nvidia chips which are transforming datacentres into “AI generation factories”, he said.

“The reason for sovereign AI has to do with the fact that the language, the knowledge, the history, the culture of each region are different and it belongs to them. They would like to use their data to create their own digital intelligence,” the CEO added.